Boomers brawl: Basketball game descends into chaos in World Cup qualifier
A vicious all-in-brawl has broken out between players from Australia and the Philippines at a World Cup Basketball qualifier overnight.
A total of 13 players were ejected as the game descended into violence in the Philippines.
The Boomers were poised to notch a convincing win, leading 79-48 with four minutes remaining in the third quarter, when the Filipinos were reportedly instructed to start playing dirty to save face in front of their home crowd.
Aussie Chris Goulding was aggressively fouled, sparking Boomers teammate Daniel Kickert to retaliate with a forearm to the face of Philippines player Roger Ray Pogoy.
Then all hell broke loose, with punches, elbows, kicks and even a chair thrown at Australian Nathan Sobey.
Several Philippines players, substitutes and members of the crowd piled on top of a Boomers player in the fracas which interrupted the game for about half an hour.
Aussie NBA star Matthew Dellavedova was playing in the game and his manager Bruce Kaider was in the stadium when the brawl escalated.
“I don’t think anyone expects this sort of thing to happen in a basketball game,” he said.
“Honestly, there was fans and officials, a whole range of officials behind the bench, that’s the scariest thing.”
Basketball Australia Chief Executive Anthony Moore has issued the following statement and will front the media in Brisbane today.
“Basketball Australia deeply regrets the incident in tonight’s match between the Boomers and the Philippines in Manila. We are extremely disappointed with what happened and our role in it.
This is not the spirit in which sport should be played and certainly not in the spirit in which we aim to play basketball.
We apologise to our fans and will await the penalties to be handed down.”
Click PLAY below to see vision of the fight
Huge brawl between Australia’s national basketball team (which includes Delly and Thon Maker) and the Philippines team 😳
🎥: @camillenaredo / ABS-CBN News pic.twitter.com/81uJ2NARXV
— SB Nation (@SBNation) July 2, 2018
Oh my god. He threw a chair! #Boomers pic.twitter.com/9T5bs5VLou
— Ricky Mangidis (@rickm18) July 2, 2018
Here’s the crazy, violent brawl from the Australia-Philippines game. pic.twitter.com/hSpEyyjU7u
— Olgun Uluc (@OlgunUluc) July 2, 2018
Image: Fox Sports